Current Limitations of Fusion Energy

Although fusion energy seems to always be having a breakthrough, an article I just read seems to suggest that not enough energy (no pun intended) is put towards substantial advancement in this field. Although fusion energy could take care of energy problems and emissions for many years to come, and change the economy, scientists still have not been able to get more energy out than they have put in. A breakthrough was obtained when scientists were able to get more energy out of the fuel than the energy hitting the fuel. However the amount of energy generated was significantly lower than the of the amount of energy used to create the light (energy) that hit the fuel.


The above picture shows a facility where a 2 million joule laser is fired at the fuel to produce a fusion reaction

The problem with fusion energy is that it takes enormous amount of energy to create an environment where a fusion reaction will take place. However, if conditions could be reached where a high-yield fusion reaction could take place, it would take very little fuel to produce enormous amounts of power, as energy equals the mass dissipated in the reaction, times the speed of light squared, or the famous e=mc^2. Since the speed of light is 300 million meters/second, a efficient fusion reaction would take hardly any fuel at all. Therefore, fusion energy could experience a breakthrough in the near future, or it could continue to slowly progress without ever becoming a viable source of energy.